Privacy policy

Van Hove & Aubry BV attaches great importance to the protection of your personal data. In this privacy policy, we explain what data we collect, why we do so and how we protect your data.

 

1. Who is the data controller and who is the data protection officer?

The notary’s office Van Hove & Aubry processes personal data in the course of its activities. 

Van Hove & Aubry BV, located at 2000 Antwerp, Amerikalei 79, with company number 0840.733.048, acts as the data controller for the processing of personal data carried out within the Office (hereinafter: “the notary’s office”). The data controller is the natural or legal person who determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data.

The notary’s office is committed to protecting privacy. The notary’s office undertakes to protect your personal data with particular care and to process it in a fully transparent manner, in strict compliance with legislation on the protection of privacy, and in particular the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (hereinafter: the “GDPR” or “GDPR”) and the Code of Conduct of the National Chamber of Notaries of 28 January 2021, which specifies certain conditions of application of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) for notaries (hereinafter the “Code of Conduct”).

In accordance with the GDPR and the Code of Conduct, the notary’s office has appointed a data protection officer, namely Privanot vzw. The data protection officer can be contacted at the following email address:info@privanot.be , or by post at the following address: Privanot vzw, Bergstraat 30, 1000 Brussels.

Through this personal data protection policy, we aim to provide you with further explanation regarding how we handle the personal data in our possession. In this policy, you will find answers to the following questions: 

• Who is the data controller and who is the data protection officer?
• Why is your personal data processed? 
• What is the legal basis for the processing of your personal data?            
• What personal data is processed by the notary’s office?
• What are the sources of information?        
• To whom may your personal data be disclosed?
• Who are the data processors for the notary’s office? 
• Is your personal data transferred outside the European Economic Area (EEA)?
• How long is your personal data retained?
• How is the security and confidentiality of your personal data guaranteed?
• What are your rights?

It should be noted that information regarding the processing of personal data of internal staff for Human Resources purposes can be found in the notary’s office’s staff regulations.

Information regarding the processing of personal data of external employees for HR purposes is set out in specific documents, such as service agreements or general policy documents.

2. Why is your personal data processed?

Purposes – The notary’s office collects and processes personal data with the primary aim of ensuring the legal certainty of the transactions for which the notary guarantees authenticity, as well as for the management of the files entrusted to the notary.

In addition, processing is necessary to fulfil other important tasks and objectives, namely: 

• The management of the notary’s office files, including processing carried out before and after the execution of an authentic deed, such as conducting searches and checks necessary for the execution of a deed, as well as any other processing necessary for the fulfilment of the notary’s duties as a public official and the duties entrusted to him by citizens;
• The administrative management and follow-up of citizens’ files, including invoicing and bookkeeping;
• Carrying out verifications and checks in accordance with AML legislation;
• Ensuring the security of buildings, property, staff and visitors via CCTV surveillance;
• Optimising website navigation through the use of cookies;
• Improving customer service and the quality of services by utilising citizen feedback and statistical analyses of the notary’s office’s operations and services using software;
• Improving the quality of the notary’s office’s operations when drafting deeds and documents necessary for the performance of the notary’s duties as a public official by using low-risk Artificial Intelligence systems.

3. What is the legal basis for the processing of your personal data?

Lawfulness – The processing of personal data carried out by the notary is considered lawful as, in the majority of cases, it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the notary is subject or is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest entrusted to the notary of the notary’s office. 

Personal data is processed by the office on the basis of, but not limited to, the following legislation:

• The Act of 25 Ventôse Year XI on the Notarial Profession;
• The Act of 18 September 2017 on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing and on the restriction of the use of cash.

In addition, the lawfulness of the processing may also be based on a legitimate interest, such as improving customer satisfaction or securing the notary’s office through CCTV surveillance.

Finally, the lawfulness of the processing may be based on the data subject’s consent, for example when using non-functional cookies on the notary’s office website.

4. What personal data does the notary’s office process?

Depending on the services you use, the notary’s office may process the following personal data:

• Identification data (surname, first name, marital status, national registration number, place and date of birth, etc.);
• Contact details (address, telephone number, etc.);
• Economic and financial data;
• Data relating to legal capacity;
• Data relating to your profession;
• Data relating to deeds executed at the notary’s office;
• Information regarding your family, social, tax or other circumstances which the notary is required to collect from official sources and authorities;
• Data relating to the quality/satisfaction of the services provided.

5. What are the sources of information?

As a public official, the notary at the notary’s office must collect and use your personal data in order to carry out their duties.

Personal data is obtained from:

• You or your legal representative;
• Authentic data sources that are strictly governed by specific legislation, such as the National Register, the Crossroads Bank for Social Security, the Central Register of Inheritance, the Central Register of Cohabitation and Marriage Agreements, etc.;
• Official bodies authorised to provide data to notaries in the course of their duties in the public interest;

6. To whom may your personal data be disclosed?

Your personal data processed by the notary’s office may, depending on the context of the processing, be disclosed to third parties (“recipients”), and in particular to:

• Legally authorised partners such as federal government departments and notarial institutions for the storage of deed copies and their metadata in the context of electronic registration and for the entry of your data in the central registers of the notarial profession (e.g. Central Register of Marriage Contracts, Central Register of  Power of Attorney Agreements, Central Register of Declarations, etc.);
• The Royal Federation of the Belgian Notarial Profession (vzw), with regard to data relating to immovable property, for inclusion in a notarial database intended to generate statistics and to enable the notary, in the course of their duties, to estimate the value of immovable property; 
• The Provincial Chamber of Notaries involved in your file and/or the National Chamber of Notaries (for example, in the context of their duties relating to auditing or in the context of the prevention and combating of money laundering);
• The other notaries involved in your file (for example, in connection with a deed of sale of immovable property);
• The National Archives for the preservation of files, deeds and wills;
• The banks involved in your file;
• The expert accountant/tax specialist who handles the notary’s office’s accounts;
• The processors responsible for the management and continuity of the notary’s office, such as software suppliers for drawing up deeds.

7. Who are the data processors for the notary’s office?

A processor is a natural or legal person, a public authority, a service or any other body that processes personal data on behalf of the notary’s office.

The notary’s office engages the following categories of processors, amongst others: 

• Hardware supplier;
• Software suppliers, such as those for file management and accounting administration;
• Back-up supplier;
• Supplier for the destruction of paper documents;
• Consultants or external staff.

8. Is your personal data transferred outside the European Economic Area (EEA)?

In principle, your personal data is not transferred outside the European Economic Area (hereinafter: “EEA”).

In the event that your personal data is nevertheless transferred to countries outside the EEA and the European Commission considers that the country to which the data is transferred does not offer an adequate level of protection, the notary’s office will make every effort to protect your personal data by providing additional safeguards (for example, by having standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission signed, by having binding corporate rules signed, etc.).

9. How long will your personal data be retained?

In accordance with the principle of limited retention of personal data, the aforementioned data may only be retained for as long as is necessary to fulfil the aforementioned purpose, subject to the specific applicable laws and the limitation periods for commercial and personal claims. The retention periods set out below correspond to those indicated in the notary’s office’s processing register.

The retention periods vary depending on the nature of the documents in question:

• Citizens’ files are retained for as long as the citizen has not chosen to change notaries and are retained for a maximum of the citizen’s entire lifetime to enable the provision of advice (in accordance with Article 9 of the Notarial Profession Act);
• Files are retained for 30 years after closure for evidential purposes (in accordance with Article 3.27 of the Civil Code)
• Minutes are retained for 50 or 75 years after the deed has been executed and are subsequently transferred to the National Archives (in accordance with Article 62 of the Notaries Act);
• Accounting records are retained for 10 years after the end of the financial year (in accordance with Article 33 of the Notaries Act);
• Account statements are retained for 10 years after the end of the relevant financial year (in accordance with Article 33 of the Notaries Act);
• Personal data held under the AML legislation is deleted after the 10-year retention period (in accordance with Articles 60 and 62(1) of the AML Act);
• CCTV footage is retained for a maximum of 1 month (in accordance with Article 6 of the amended Act of 21 March 2007 on the installation and use of surveillance cameras);
• Personal data processed for the management of the website is retained for as long as necessary to achieve the intended purpose;
• Personal data processed in the context of Artificial Intelligence software will no longer be processed by these technologies once your file has been closed by the notary’s office.

10. How is the security and confidentiality of your personal data guaranteed?

The notary’s office takes appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security commensurate with the risk and implements the security measures set out in the Code of Conduct of the National Chamber of Notaries of 28 January 2021 regarding the processing of personal data.

The security measures are taken to prevent the destruction, loss, falsification, alteration, unauthorised access or misrepresentation of collected personal data to third parties, as well as any other unauthorised processing of this data. 

The notary’s office ensures, amongst other things, that:

• Access to premises containing data storage media is restricted exclusively to authorised persons;
• The server environment is adequately secured;
• Personal data is stored and destroyed in a secure manner;
• Employees and processors are granted secure access to the data necessary to achieve the intended objective;
• A procedure for reporting a personal data breach is available to members of the notary’s office;
• A policy regarding the rights of data subjects is available to the members of the notary’s office;
• An information security policy is available to members of the notary’s office;
• A GDPR awareness policy is available to members of the notary’s office;
• Technical security measures, such as firewalls, antivirus software and regular security updates, are implemented.

These measures are regularly monitored and reviewed by the aforementioned DPO as part of a routine review.

The notary’s office has entered into a data processing agreement with the processors with whom it works, in accordance with Article 28 of the GDPR and Article 2 of the Code of Conduct of the National Chamber of Notaries of 28 January 2021.

11. What are your rights?

Under the GDPR, as a data subject in relation to the processing of your personal data by the notary’s office, you have various rights regarding your personal data, provided these do not conflict with the legal obligations to which the notary’s office is subject.

Under certain circumstances, you have the following rights:

• Right to information: You have the right to access the personal data that the notary’s office processes about you, as well as to be informed of the purposes of this processing and the retention period of the data;
• Right of access: You have the right to access and obtain the personal data that the notary’s office holds and processes about you;
• Right to rectification: You have the right to have any inaccurate or incomplete personal data processed about you rectified;
• Right to erasure: You have the right to request the deletion of your personal data processed by the notary’s office;
• Right to restriction of processing: You have the right to restrict the processing of your personal data, for example where you contest the accuracy of the data;
• Right to data portability: You have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and to transmit this to a third party;
• Right to object: You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data by the notary’s office.

You may exercise your rights directly with the notary’s office by emailinginfo@vanhove-aubry.be or by writing to Van Hove & Aubry, Amerikalei 79, 2000 Antwerp, or with the Data Protection Officer by emailinginfo@privanot.be .

Finally, if you believe that your rights are not being respected in accordance with the GDPR, you may lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Authority (Persstraat 35, 1000 Brussels or via their website www.gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit.be).

Last updated: 1 October 2025